Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Movement

Comprising simply about of the most momentous too tumultuous episodes too events inwards the history of the U.S. since abolition, the civil rights movement, non surprisingly, is associated amongst numerous conspiracy theories that issued (and proceed to issue) from a various cross-section of political, ideological, too social viewpoints.

The most pregnant conspiracy theories regarding this surface area of involvement job organisation the alleged Communist ties of the civil rights movement; the systemic disenfranchisement of African Americans; covert too illegal operations of the authorities to countervail the efforts of civil rights groups; too ambiguities surrounding the assassinations of key civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., too Malcolm X.

The civil rights displace inwards the U.S. must showtime too inaugural of all survive understood inwards price of the civil, political, too juridical struggles to accomplish racial equality too amount citizenship rights for African Americans. Known also every bit the “Black Freedom Movement,” the “Negro Revolution,” too the “Second Reconstruction,” the civil rights displace was, at the outset, a challenge to the legally too socially sanctioned scheme of racial segregation.


This was called the Jim Crow scheme too was introduced at the bird of nation constabulary past times secessionist Southern Democrats (“Dixiecrats”) every bit a agency of retarding too reversing the advances made past times African Americans during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. The Supreme Court afterward sanctioned the legitimacy of Jim Crow practices inwards the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson illustration (1896), which upheld segregation inwards railroad cars.

Beyond its policies too practices of racial segregation, the Jim Crow scheme also engendered too sought to hold the political too social disenfranchisement of African Americans through the systematic denial of voting rights, access to adequate education, too ownership of existent estate. In response, individuals too organizations comprising the civil rights displace staged too otherwise participated inwards protestation marches, boycotts, too physical violations of segregation laws.

Notwithstanding the continuing debate virtually both the actual appointment of its inception, too whether or non its objectives convey indeed been fully realized, the civil rights displace is usually recorded to convey been inaugurated past times the Montgomery jitney boycott inwards 1955 too concluded amongst the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Civil Rights Movement too Perceived Threats of Secularism too Communism

The increasing frequency of confrontations triggered past times various constituents of the civil rights displace was accompanied past times a growing trunk of sentiment that a Communist conspiracy was behind non solely domestic attempts at advancing the social too political condition of African Americans, but also the mounting demands for decolonization worldwide.

As early on every bit 1958, the thus manager of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover had stated that “[t]he Negro province of affairs is beingness exploited fully too continuously past times Communists on a national scale” (Davis, 319). While non purely speculative, since many Communist writers openly praised too voiced back upwardly for civil rights endeavors too identities, this arguing was indicative of a greater shop of anxieties entertained past times many political too religious factions of the conservative Right.

Dr. King's historical speech

Influenced past times too drawing from the rhetoric of white too Christian supremacy, every bit good every bit the enduring collective anticommunism suspicions generated past times McCarthyism too the context of the mutual depression temperature war, fundamentalist Christian groups such every bit the Christian Crusade led past times Billy James Hargis were convinced that African Americans had non been averse toward segregation until they were suborned past times nonChristian (or, “godless”) radicals.

In the widely distributed Communist America, Must It Be? (1960) Hargis charged the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the United Nations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific too Cultural Organization (UNESCO), too the Supreme Court every bit beingness composed of “Communist-front supporters” or otherwise linked to pro-communist subversive plots to undermine too dispossess “patriotic Christian-American people.”

Other prominent voices of the Christian Crusade included figures such every bit David Nobel, who talked of conspiratorial plots hatched past times civil rights groups to supersede the (Christian) “American way of life” amongst “primitive” too sexually licentious secularism. Similar, though less hyperbolical, views were circulated past times political figures such every bit Medford Evans from the Conservative Society of America.


In the influential article “Civil Rights Myths too Communist Realities” (1963), for example, Evans asserted that non solely was Martin Luther King, Jr., an musical instrument of communism, but that the comparatively conservative NAACP was effectively an organisation operated past times Communist forces.

In a bid to dispel world fears, a arguing was issued past times thus Attorney General Robert Kennedy on 25 July 1963, which expressly denied the existence of whatever show implicating whatever of the heads of the primary civil rights groups to survive Communists or “Communist-controlled.”

Nevertheless, for many individuals too collectives, the pervasive belief inwards the existence of surreptitious collusions betwixt organizations of the civil rights displace too both domestic too international forces of communism could non survive gainsaid.

For for certain sectors of the population, it could survive argued that denials such every bit Kennedy’s genuinely served to fuel the imaginations too apprehensions virtually the conspiratorial possibilities underlying whatever organized efforts to promote diverseness too racial equality.

For example, the real pop subway scheme new The Turner Diaries (1980), written past times white supremacist William Pierce nether the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald, futuristically portrays a heroic white supremacist insurrection against an “oppressive” racially various authorities called “The System.”

Conspiracies against Civil Rights Groups too Individuals

At the other terminate of the spectrum, inwards focusing upon the systemic nature of the disenfranchisement of African Americans too other cultural minority groups, radical perspectives including those of the predominantly European-American New Left too for certain factions of the civil rights displace increasingly perceived the entrenched too institutionalized racial hegemony inwards the U.S. every bit a shape of internal colonialism.

This domestic vogue of colonialism was depicted past times proponents such every bit Malcolm X from the Nation of Islam (and afterward the Organization of Afro-American Unity), Stokely Carmichael, too Charles V. Hamilton every bit a totalitarian, neo-imperialistic construction that subjugated dark (and other minority) Americans too that was closely linked to U.S. economical too armed forces exploitation too domination of developing countries.

While this portrayal cannot survive understood strictly inwards price of conspiracy theory discourse, it withal served every bit an ideological too theoretical framework upon which claims virtually the conspiratorial nature of white privilege inwards the U.S. could survive based.

For example, the widely read pulp fiction novellas of the 1960s too 1970s past times subway scheme African American author Iceberg Slim drew greatly upon the ideological paradigms of Black Power field representing the federal authorities too the ruling white classes, both conservative too liberal, every bit white supremacists conspiring to hold the economic, political, too social subjugation of dark Americans.

While to a greater extent than broadly defined accounts of covert white supremacist plots enjoyed simply about popularity during the 1950s, 1960s, too 1970s too beyond, world fascination inwards the U.S. too worldwide continues to survive transfixed past times conspiracy theories surrounding item events, organizations, too political figures associated amongst the civil rights movement.

Perhaps the most durable of these theories job organisation the assassinations of 2 of the most prominent dark leaders inwards the political history of the United States: physician Martin Luther King, Jr., too Malcolm X (née Malcolm Little; also known afterward past times his adopted religious name, El-Hajj Malik ElShabazz).

Regardless of whether the civil rights displace is officially defunct or not, conspiracy theories appending the deaths of King too Malcolm X proceed to circulate. In both cases, almost all of those theories implicate inwards the assassinations, to varying degrees, the federal government.

This is non surprising since both King too Malcolm X (and past times too large, all known organizations associated amongst the civil rights movement) were closely monitored past times authorities agencies throughout most of their respective careers. Moreover, FBI manager J. Edgar Hoover made no undercover of his glaring contempt too anxiety toward the agendas too aspirations of civil rights groups too individuals.

Hoover non solely believed that the civil rights displace threatened the societal stability of the United States, but because of their perceived potential every bit “black messiahs,” Hoover harbored slap-up apprehensions toward influential African American figures such every bit King, Malcolm X, too the Nation of Islam’s leader Elijah Muhammad.

Until it was exposed inwards early on 1971, the FBI-launched Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) functioned beyond legal restrictions to, inwards Hoover’s ain words, “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit too otherwise neutralize” groups too individuals associated amongst the civil rights movement.

The covert, systemic, too illegal operations of COINTELPRO directed against opponents to the government’s domestic too unusual policies were revealed inwards the 1970s past times Senate too House commission inquiries to request non solely the FBI, but also the CIA, the U.S. Army Intelligence, the White House, the business office of the attorney general, too fifty-fifty local too nation constabulary enforcement.

Known targets of COINTELPRO included the American Indian Movement, the Communist Party, the Socialist Worker’s Party, dark nationalist groups, too many members of the New Left (comprising the Students for a Democratic Society, too a broad make of antiwar, antiracist, feminist, lesbian too gay, too environmentalist groups).